Data Point - The Rich DO pay more in taxes - Granite Grok

Data Point – The Rich DO pay more in taxes

All Obama and the Dems can say is that certain folks don’t pay their fair share in taxes.  I know that there are some socialist / Progressives that would be fine with taking it all after a certain point (“you should not be able to make more than $5 million per year!”) and a high percentage on everything before that.  Equality, they say.  But the way they talk about it, the rich pay next to nothing; hardly:

% income tax paid
Adjusted gross income as a share of AGI
$1 to under $10,000 -13.6
$10,000 to under $20,000 -11.5
$20,000 to under $30,000 -3.7
$30,000 to under $50,000 3.1
$50,000 to under $100,000 7.5
$100,000 to under $200,000 12
$200,000 to under $500,000 19.6
$500,000 to under $1,000,000 24
$1,000,000 to under $1,500,00 24.9
$1,500,000 to under $2,000,000 25.1
$2,000,000 to under $5,000,000 24.9
$5,000,000 to under $10,000,000 24.2
$10,000,000 or more 20.7

As the chart shows, the only folks paying nothing are the poor – and with the EITC, the govt actually pays them. I bet you’re noticing “Skip, look at the top two brackets – they are paying LESS – you LIE!”.  Er, no – and this is where the Dems pull the magic trick of demogoguing over the low-information voter:

And that would be due to the difference in earned income (commonly referred to as wage/salary income) and capital gains / dividend income (income derived from invested money on which taxes have ALREADY been paid – and now the Govt wants a SECOND cut at what it didn’t earn):

% of gross income from
Adjusted gross income capital gains &dividends

$1 to under $10,000 0.4
$10,000 to under $20,000 0.6
$20,000 to under $30,000 0.7
$30,000 to under $50,000 0.8
$50,000 to under $100,000 1.4
$100,000 to under $200,000 2.2
$200,000 to under $500,000 5.6
$500,000 to under $1,000,000 10
$1,000,000 to under $1,500,00 14.6
$1,500,000 to under $2,000,000 16.6
$2,000,000 to under $5,000,000 21.7
$5,000,000 to under $10,000,000 28.8
$10,000,000 or more 48.5

Look at the last two catagories here and in the previous table – it shows that most of the very rich do not work for a wages – their income comes from making successful investments for the longer term.

 

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